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CRMUG: Summit to talk about

I really loved my time here and it was great to meet thought-leaders and people who were highly engaged with the product and user group.

And, after spending 4 days at CRMUG listening to implementers of Dynamic CRM from across the world, the first thing I need to do on behalf of every sales person is to apologise!

There is so much effort and planning on implementing and improving user experience that when Sales decides not to utilise it, then it must be heart-breaking (and costly). However, a common theme occurred … data quality. An obvious thing with data quality is how it effects business decision making, predictive analysis, and direct marketing. But what is not explored is the effect on user adoption to CRM. I heard the following quite a few times:

“The users are blaming the system, but it’s not the system it’s the data!”

So how do you get around this problem and though I heard some answers, like:

“Work with the users”

“Use excel to de-duplicate and remove”

Both fine ideas and on a small scale works. But in larger organisations? One person spent over 100 hours of her own time de-duplicating a database of 30,000 contacts. This is not including standardisation or validation of the contact information. Firstly, I would commend her as this was done outside of work hours for the love of her work but secondly, I’d say it is not sustainable for her to carry on doing and it is certainly unviable for most people.

As a Data Professional, my suggestions for CRM Admins are:

Work with a Data Quality partner – the investment of work collaborating with a partner versus the cost in yours and your sales teams time or the cost of CRM adoption failing will repay you 5 times over.

Build a roadmap – work with the partner on KPIs and build a vision of where you want to be and what that will provide you – keep in mind every dollar spent on CRM usually provides 5-8 dollars back.

Customise your CRM – build in data quality tools and certain rules to ensure it is as automated as possible to keep the quality of your data high.

Education, Education & Education: it is truly the one thing your ongoing data quality relies upon the most, users understanding why they need it, how to use it and the benefit to them.

Overall, the conference was truly a great forum of Dynamics professionals and I highly recommend it. If you are not part of the user group, it is free to join or if you are looking for full membership our team can provide a 10% off code.

Also, to hear more about CRMUG, stay tuned as my fellow attendees are writing a blog about their Tampa experience!